“That’s what killed Bourke and Wills,” he says of the tiny round leaves of the nardoo plant.

After the explorers Burke, Wills and King missed their relief party at Cooper’s Creek, they tried to survive by eating nardoo – an important food for the local Yandruwandha Aboriginal people – but the men didn’t know the correct way to prepare it. 

Unless soaked, the nardoo paste contains an enzyme that causes a vitamin B1 deficiency. 

“They were so rude to the Aboriginal people they never learnt that,” Paul says.

Burke and Wills had made a fatal error, but John King was cared for by the Yandruwandha and was still alive three months later when search parties found him.

Paul says it’s the perfect example of the importance of listening to and learning from our indigenous community. He’s spent much of his life doing that, fuelling his passion for the history and ecosystems of the Loddon wetlands.

During September Paul will join the North Central Catchment Management Authority to lead a wetlands tour – taking in the Aboriginal artefacts, flora and fauna around Boort. 

It’s part of the Naturally Loddon Spring Festival – a calendar of events that highlights Loddon’s best natural attributes.

And are they gorgeous.

The beautiful Boort lakes are home to a rich and unique ecosystem. They also boast the world’s largest collection of scare trees. 

The trees and the lakes tell a story of this country rarely seen. But as Paul says, it’s all there if you know where to look.

The nardoo plant is growing beside a mound of earth pockmarked with rabbit holes. Anyone would walk right by it, unless they knew it was a cooking mound of the indigenous people.

“I grew up playing on these cooking mounds along the Loddon River, trapping rabbits,” Paul says.

“I used to think, what happened to these people? I thought they were extinct.”

Paul explains the cooking mounds were used by generations of families. They were holes around 10 metres in diameter, filled with hand-made clay heat beads. Food would be laid on grasses and herbs, then covered to cook.

Today they’re left as soft mounds of black soil, ash and fine bone, covered with lush grass.

Paul scraps around and finds a clay ball.

“You often find fingerprints in them and the prints could be thousands of years old,” he says.

Beside the mound is a scattering of scare trees – black box trunks with the distinct oval indentations left from bark being taken with quartz tools and used for drinking vessels, baby carriers, bark huts, frames to dry possum skins, and even canoes.

Paul says canoe trees are now rare in Australia – there are around 10 of them in the bed of Lake Boort.

“It’s Australian history, it’s not only indigenous history, it’s Australian history, and it’s so close to Bendigo,” Paul says.

“We’ve only been here for seven or eight generations and they’ve been here for thousands. We can’t just ignore it. We’ve got so much to learn.”

Paul says he has the blessing of local indigenous people to share the knowledge he’s gained – all from the University of Life.

“If I’m doing a tour I ring and tell them,” he says.

“They said it’s better to have a white man do them than no one, and I thought, how beautiful.”

Like many in Boort, Paul’s own family history goes back generations here.

“My family moved here when the gold ran out at Clunes in the 1880s,” he says.

“They bought a farm by the Loddon River and my brother still owns that very same farm. It’s just a beautiful spot.

“I farmed as well, sheep and wheat.”

Paul served in the Vietnam War, and returned a staunch environmentalist. He says witnessing the effects Agent Orange had on not only the people, but the Vietnamese environment, sent him on a lifelong journey caring for nature.

He and his wife ran a nursery in Boort, growing up to three million native trees each year for environmental purposes.

Paul says that since retirement, he’s never been busier. 

“I’m fascinated in the survival of small towns because when they’re gone, they’re gone,” he says.

“While the population of many towns is decreasing, Boort’s is stable. We’re very fortunate because we’ve got theses fantastic wetlands on our doorstep, and they have such incredible beauty.”

Come and see it for yourself on September 14 as part of Naturally Loddon. The tour costs $15 for adults and $10 for children. Bookings are essential – phone 0417 333 171 or email pchaw@activ8.net.au  

Naturally Loddon turns it on all throughout spring with a wildflower show, sculpture and photography exhibitions, fishing competition, national park tours, the Bridgewater Wool, Wheat and Wine Festival and the Boort Luncheon by the Lake – among many other events. 

Go to www.loddon.vic.gov.au for the full program.